Altaeros Energies lance une nouvelle génération d’éoliennes Crédits photo : Altaeros Energies La start-up américaine Altaeros Energies va lancer en Alaska son premier projet-pilote, une nouvelle génération d’éoliennes volantes totalement autonomes. La start-up s’est associée avec l’Autorité de l’énergie de l’Alaska pour envoyer un ballon à l’hélium baptisé BAT (Buoyant Airbonne Turbine) à environ 300 mètres au-dessus du sol de l’Alaska. Impressionnant sachant qu’aucune éolienne aérienne n’a jamais atteint cette altitude. L’aérostat en forme de donut est à la fois plus performant et surtout moins coûteux qu’une éolienne classique, cet appareil permet d’exploiter les vents d’altitudes, plus constants et largement plus puissants. De ce fait, le BAT devrait fournir environ deux fois plus d’énergie qu’une éolienne terrestre pour un coût de 18 cents par kilowattheure, c’est-à-dire, la moitié du prix actuel de l’énergie en Alaska. Le dispositif est organisé de manière à être totalement autonome. >> En savoir plus sur Altaeros Energies Source : Le Vif
Garbage Patch - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other pollution issues Nao The Robot Teacher Becomes Newest Edition To Kansas School's Teaching Staff The Career and Technical Education Academy in Hutchinson, Kan., has hired a new teacher who may fit in perfectly at an institution with such a technological name. The Hutchinson News reports Nao, a robot teacher, has arrived mid-year at the high school but is already making a big impact. The Hutchinson News visited Nao's classroom, where a reporter spoke with students, Nao and Steve Stacey, the robot's human coworker/caretaker. Students in the computer programming class were mainly sending typed messages to the robot, which would repeat them back seconds later. Nao was developed by the French startup company Aldebaran Robotics, which describes the robot as an autonomous and programmable humanoid. The company hopes high schools like the one in Hutchinson will incorporate its robots into their science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula to jump-start interest in these fields, especially among female and minority students.
this plant will charge your phone Next time you ask to borrow your friend’s charger, it might live in their greenhouse. No, really. While saving the planet is no small task, Barcelona-based company Arkyne Technologies recognizes the value in starting with renewable energy. After releasing successful prototypes, they just brought your eighth grade science class to life with a pretty little pot called Bioo Lite, according to Yahoo Tech. But this plant does way more than just add a dose of greenery to a room. Utilizing photosynthesis, the device transfers energy from the plant: through the process, sunshine turns carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and organic compounds, which are then broken down by bacteria to charge your phone via a USB port. While the magical device isn't on the market yet, after surpassing its $17,000 fundraising goal, it’s slated for a December 2016 release. Related: Watch the New iPhone SE Get Dunked, Dropped, and Tumbled in a Durability Test
Vidéo / Eolienne dans un arbre Émission télévisée du 7 avril 2011, TV Südbaden L’idée est simple et sa réalisation doit l’être également. Des générateurs d’électricité dans la cime des arbres. Le vent qui souffle au-dessus de la forêt n’est plus seulement synonyme de sentiment romantique pour l’ami de la nature – aujourd’hui, il lui apporte aussi quelques kilowatts d’électricité. Frey : « J’ai longtemps cherché à savoir quel était le problème intrinsèque de l’éolienne. Pour le montage de l’installation qui pèse 160 kg, un appareillage agricole moyen suffit. Frey : « Je fais l’économie du mât, je fais l’économie des fondations, je fais l’économie de la voirie pour la construction et de la grande armoire du transformateur nécessaire au transport de l’électricité sur une grande distance. » Ce qui signifie que les coûts baissent de plus de moitié. Donc, de l’électricité éolienne pour tous les propriétaires d’arbres. Frey : « L‘écologie est le contraire de la monoculture.
Germany - Freiburg - Green City | The EcoTipping Points Project Long famous for its cathedral, university, and cuckoo clocks, Freiburg is now also famous as a “Green City.” It excels in the areas of transportation, energy, waste management, and land conservation, and has created a green economy that perpetuates even more environmental progress. Photo: Courtesy Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik u. Messe GmbH Freiburg, a city of about 220,000 people and 155 km2 of land, is located in the southwest corner of Germany, at the edge of the Black Forest and near the borders with France and Switzerland. With its large academic community, Freiburg was an early stronghold of the Green Movement in the 1970s. Freiburg promotes itself as a Green city—especially in the areas of transportation, energy, waste management, land conservation, and green economics—and the city has won various national and international environmental awards. Transportation Freiburg was heavily bombed during World War II; little remained of the city center besides the cathedral. Energy Solar.
Nanoscale Biosensors in Your Eyes and Brain Could Collect Data on Your Health | Motherboard A new graphene biosensor design, just four atoms thick, could overcome the limitations of its comparatively clunky predecessors and one day find itself in peoples’ brains, on their eyes, and anywhere else on the body where the body's electrical signals could usefully be, well, sensed. Conductive biosensors that measure electrical activity in the brain allow neuroscientists to track what, exactly, is happening in that mysterious organ when we—okay, I—do things like decide to eat an entire pizza instead of hit the gym. But traditional sensors have a problem: they’re often metallic, rigid, and interrupt other methods of brain scanning like MRI, infrared, and ultraviolet scanning. According to a new Nature Communications paper by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers, brain research techniques like optogenetics—genetically modifying neurons to be stimulated by light—require new kinds of transparent sensors that won’t block portions of the brain from being investigated.
Portugal just ran for 4 straight days entirely on renewable energy As renewable energy matures into an ever more popular and cost-effective source of electricity, we're getting used to seeing some historic achievements from nations that have ramped up their clean energy infrastructure – and the latest glory goes to Portugal. Recent figures show that the country ran on renewable energy alone for four days straight this month, completing an extraordinary 107-hour run between Saturday morning, May 7, and early Wednesday evening, May 11. During this record-setting window, Portugal ran on solar, wind, and hydro electricity entirely, without needing to fall back on power sourced from its coal and natural gas plants. The numbers, released by Portugal's ZERO System Sustainable Land Association in collaboration with the Portuguese Renewable Energy Association (APREN), indicate that the nation has come a long way in terms of embracing clean energy in recent decades, and could stand to even improve its environmental credentials in the near future.
Free Energy Web: Freiburg Green City Frey, Wolfgang / Freiburg Green CityDéveloppement urbain durable Éditeur Herder Verlag / Format : 17,5 x 22,7 cm, 208 pages, brochéISBN 978-3-451-30388-3 / €(D) 14,95 / sFR 21,90 Un espace de vie prend la marque des hommes et des femmes qui y habitent, et ces hommes et ces femmes sont à leur tour marqués par leur espace de vie. Une réciprocité qui influe également sur le développement de nos cités. 55 villes du monde entier ont été conviées à présenter leurs concepts autour du thème « Better City – Better life » à l’Expo 2010 de Shanghai. Fribourg en Brisgau était l’une d’entre elles. Au cours des dernières décennies, Fribourg a acquis une renommée internationale grâce à ses modèles et projets exemplaires pour une urbanisation sociale, écologique et durable. Également disponible en version anglais-chinois.
Beyond Nuclear - Home COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola Editor's Note: Today's commentary was submitted to CIDRAP by the authors, who are national experts on respiratory protection and infectious disease transmission. In May they published a similar commentary on MERS-CoV. Dr Brosseau is a Professor and Dr Jones an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Healthcare workers play a very important role in the successful containment of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Ebola. The correct type and level of personal protective equipment (PPE) ensures that healthcare workers remain healthy throughout an outbreak—and with the current rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it's imperative to favor more conservative measures. The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has: References
Deltec launches line of super efficient, net-zero energy homes - starting under 100K | Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building A company in Asheville, North Carolina is taking prefabricated home design to a new level with their Renew Collection of affordable net-zero energy houses. While Deltec made a name for themselves with round hurricane-resistant homes, now the company has amped up the energy efficiency by two thirds with their latest home collection, in response to the increasing demand for net-zero energy housing. And these new 'Renew' homes aren't just super energy efficient -- they generate their own energy with photovoltaic solar power and solar water heating, and are surprisingly affordable, with kits starting under 100K. There are currently 9 new models in the Renew Collection, each designed to satisfy a variety of different needs and tastes. Deltec Homes was founded in 1968 in Asheville, North Carolina as a builder of hurricane-resistant homes – primarily for resort communities. RELATED: Why our ancestors built round homes, and why it still makes sense today + Renew Model Homes + Deltec Homes